In the Lap of the Gods
Page 18
Laleh moved the cyclic in a small circle but even minute movements altered the sound of rotors thrashing through the air and the direction the cone tilted in.
“You won’t get that noise when we’re in the air. Now, hold onto that lever on the left side.”
It was at the level of her seat pan and she had to look down to find it.
“You have to be pretty gentle with this one. An old instructor of mine told me to handle it like a virgin on her wedding night. I think it put me off getting married.”
He smiled and she smiled too. He didn’t see her wrapped in egg shell so much.
“It’s called the collective lever. Raising or lowering it alters the lift on each blade at the same time, so it makes us go up or down. We can’t raise it much yet or we’ll take off, but just follow me through.”
Nick raised the collective a few inches. The noise level changed dramatically as the machine got light on its skids. It tried to turn and dance.
“Did you notice anything else when it got lighter Lily.”
“It wanted to spin.”
“Well those two levers in front of your feet are called pedals. Can you reach them, or do they need adjusting?” She stretched her jean clad legs forward.
“No Nick, they’re all right.”
“So when we increase power we need to push the left one, if we decrease power we push the right one. We need some when we turn as well.”
“I can remember that.”
“Okay love. Now there’s a thing under the compass that looks like a curved spirit level. Can you see it?” He pointed.
“That one with a white marble inside?”
“That’s it. Don’t worry about it too much, but if your pedals are okay for either the power you’ve got on or the turn you’re making, that will be in the middle. Just glance at it sometimes.”
“It’s not as easy as that though, is it Nick?”
“Someone once said that learning to fly a chopper is like being a one-armed paper hangar, but it does get easier. Concentrate Lil, you’re about to become a pilot.
“Okay, let’s get on with it.” She beamed this time.
“Hovering the beast with the wind gusting around buildings and hills can be a bit tricky Laleh, and you aren’t ready for that yet. I’ll get us going, but keep your hands on the controls and you can take charge in a minute. Righto, here we go.”
Nick lifted the machine gently, and checked the flickering needles on his side of the flight panel. They were all where they should be. He lowered the nose and increased power to compensate and the chopper started to accelerate quickly. He’d only done a cursory lookout, it didn’t get much remoter than where he was right then, and he wanted to keep it simple. He was conscious of the slight friction applied by Laleh.
At the escarpment’s edge the ground under them dropped suddenly from a few feet to a few hundred instantly, causing her to squeak, then whoop with delight. Nick smiled and continued to accelerate to eighty knots.
“Okay Lily, here we go. That red button on top of your cyclic like a Chinaman’s hat is a trim. Operate it with your thumb. Move the cyclic forward or back, then take the pressure off it with the springs that it controls. Don’t trim into turns though. Are you ready to take over the speed only.”
Laleh couldn’t believe how far they had already travelled. “Okay Nickie, I can do this. I have control.”
Nick gave her a couple of minutes. “Beautiful. Now move the cyclic a bit to the right, you’ll turn that way.”
“It’s turning, but is anything else happening Lil?”
“We’re crabbing a bit and I think we’re going down too.”
“Absolutely right. So when we turn we need to push the pedals in the direction we’re turning and we need a bit of power as well.”
“Got it.”
“Okay then. Change speed and direction when you feel like but remember where the power and rudder positions should be. I’ll move them, but you tell me when to.”
Nick made a deliberate movement of his right hand into his lap to let her see that she was controlling speed and direction. By then she was concentrating hard but looked ecstatic too.
“Okay. The only other thing with your altitude is to use the horizon in front of you rather than the instruments. React to the position of the aircraft’s nose on it, and only look at the instruments to check.”
He let her wander where she wanted, keeping an eye on where they were. The time flew as well.
“Right Laleh, I have it. Relax and shake the wrinkles out.”
The girl sat back with a ragged exhalation of breath. “I think that was the most exciting thing I’ve ever done, Nick.” She was bubbling.
“You haven’t finished yet woman. That’ll be when you control everything at the same time.”
She looked apprehensive immediately. “Oh, I didn’t think I’d have to do it all.”
“You’re a natural Lil. You’ve got a nice light touch, and it gets easier with practice. Put your feet on the pedals and hold the collective. Good. Now look at the gauge on the top right of your panel.” He moved the lever up and down gently, adjusting the pedals as he did. The machine changed height as the needle rose and fell.
“Okay then. No big movements and don’t go into the red bit at the top. You’re in charge of the power and pedals.”
Laleh made tentative movements at first, then larger ones as she got bolder. Time ceased for her but Nick was keeping an eye on it.
“Okay Lily, this is what it’s all about. Bring your right hand onto the cyclic as well.” The girl complied. “Right Lil. Remember, if you change one you’ve got to change the others to compensate. You have it.” He held the controls lightly himself. She wasn’t coordinating the movements much, but she was doing them positively. Nick was impressed.
Laleh was so busy making larger changes that it was a while before she realised he’d let go of everything. He pointed to an obvious ravine on his right. “The Qom river is in there Lily. Fly us down to it please.”
He deliberately held the map with both hands after he’d lifted it off the instrument hood.
The helicopter’s glide path wasn’t a smooth, linear descent, more like it was on a giant staircase, and it wobbled and seesawed too, but it did end up descending safely to just above the river. Nick took back control then turned to her and grinned.
“That was really good Lily. Sit back and relax. It’s not far to home now.” Nick glanced at Laleh as Shahabad slid by. She sat with her head back on the seat cushion with a smile of ecstasy on her face.
“Our house is on top of that greener hill there.” He pointed, but whether she looked at it or not, he didn’t know. Her head was back and her eyes were still closed when he glanced again.
As the machine roared out of the foothills the pilot flicked a nervous glance at the road from Qom. A few cars were travelling in either direction, but none were convoys or Hum-vees. He headed directly for the oil stained concrete pad with the yellow circle and gigantic ‘H.’ Imran was waiting on the pad to direct him in, and Jock ambled out from the crew-room as Nick got the cut signal, and when the rotors stopped the girl released her seat belt and opened her door. Nick was still knocking off switches and radios when Sinclair reached the machine. Laleh threw her arms around him so rigorously that he had to step backwards to keep his balance.
“I flew it Jock. I really flew it!”
Sinclair hugged her. “Aye, I bet you put that reprobate to shame in five minutes flat.” He was grinning too.
Nick also had a grin on his face when he climbed out, and Laleh ran around the chopper and launched herself with a few feet to go. Her arms wrapped around his neck, her legs around his upper thighs, and her exuberance was catching. Everyone was smiling by then. It was Imran that broke the buoyant, noisy frivolity.
“You’d better get Laleh back in the crew-room before we phone for the bowser Nick.” The mood toned down instantly. Sinclair and Nick walked back to the offices with Laleh in the middle,
her arms linked though each of theirs. The yellow bowser turned up again when requested.
Eating dinner that evening was noisy and boisterous, and went on for hours. The stew, pocket bread, fruit and cheeses were revisited several times, and the bottles got passed casually and often. Sinclair escaped to his own house eventually but by then Laleh had repeated her day several times over. It was all about the same events really, just told in a different way.
And they’d already massacred two bottles of decent red while they ate, but the two males only just kept ahead of her with the whisky bottle too. Lil kept talking, though not surprisingly they all began to wilt as the evening lengthened.
In the end Amini had to deliberately bring Laleh down, to let her know she was becoming boring, but she was still animated when he finally shooed her into her room. She didn’t go willingly and was still calling through her curtained doorway while they cleared away. Farhad joshed a smiling Nick as they worked.
“Now I know how you pilots do it Nick. It’s a pity there wasn’t an Iranian Fleet-Air-Arm. I obviously chose the wrong profession,” he grinned.
“I’ve only taken squadron people and the odd VIP flying before Fred, but I really enjoyed being up there with someone who seemed so keen. It really got to her.”
“Get her up there again and I reckon you’ve got a slave for life mate.”
That one really sobered the pilot up. He smiled reflectively. “One thing I’ve learnt in a very short time is that Laleh is unlikely to be anybody’s slave Fred.”
Amini sobered too. “I was older Nick, never really knew her all that well, but I’m pretty impressed with my little sister right now. She’s become a real tiger. Joking aside, I reckon she’d make somebody who wasn’t an overbearing dick-head a pretty good partner given half the chance.” He deliberately looked at Nick when he said that, then grinned. “Mind you, I think I’d stick to just one wife with her.”
Nick didn’t deny it, but he did redden. He’d never been prone to self-analysis and found the thought uncomfortable. He was still not sure what he felt nor where this was going but he didn’t want it to stop either.
“Well, she’s certainly not like any woman I’ve ever met before Fred. Perhaps that’s what scared me off at first.”
Farhad didn’t say anything but his English was impeccable. He was certainly aware of the nuances of the past and present tense, and merely nodded. There hadn’t been any comments flying from the other room once they started talking either. Nick missed that.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The week flew by and it was soon time to shop in Qom again. It wasn’t an imposition for Nick to do the driving, and neither was it too obvious that the Scot and Amini chose to try their luck in the local streams with the rods instead.
Ordinary days get an early start in Iran, schools, businesses, factories, everything, so Nick and the women were on their way to Qom by eight with Sarah dressed as she always dressed while Laleh wore her chador. The comments had been ripe as she pulled the thick robes over her head.
Struggling with the gentleman thing, he opened the passenger door for the girls with a flourish.
“Wrong Nick. Good Muslim women walk behind, not alongside the blokes, and ride in the back with the goats.” He could see little more than the expressive dark eyes but knew her face was creased with laughter. Sarah nearly choked as she climbed into the back, while Nick’s grin had some suppressed anger in it. “In that case it’ll be a bloody good job when we’re living somewhere a bit more civilised then.”
Laleh stopped smiling instantly, her eyes riveted on his face. Did he realise what he’d just said?
He knew.
Nick returned her gaze lazily and unexpectedly stuck his tongue out. She couldn’t stop herself grinning.
“Right woman, climb in and shut the bloody door yourself.”
Sarah was still chuckling as she poked Laleh with a gentle elbow.
The golden mosque in Qom, close to the noisy, pungent souk, was a replica of the big one in Jerusalem. Pricier, more up-market shops sprawled in a suburb nearby, and the women wanted to start with dress shops so Nick pulled up a few blocks away.
There were no directions anywhere in the mosque grounds, no obvious signage anywhere, and the few people around seemed to be deliberately ignoring him. It took fifteen minutes to find the office he was looking for.
Two men looked up when he entered the office, only their dark shirts resembling any form of uniform. One was Arak, but surprisingly the atmosphere was not hostile.
“How have you done Mister Evans?”
“Not too good so far, but this can be a slow business. We found a couple of sites where the green of copper is showing, but they’re pretty high up and don’t look big enough to be commercial. After the Christian New Year break we’ll look further south. We haven’t been down there much yet.”
“If you do find anything worthwhile we need an instant report – yes?”
“You’ll be the first to know Mister Arak.”
Nick ambled back into the fierce sunlight. Arak opened an adjacent door where a man was stacking files.
“Follow him. See what he’s up to.”
It would be a while before the women re-appeared so Nick idly browsed the shop windows on his way back to the vehicle. He’d guessed that any goods on offer would now be dull and colourless, infinitely less than exciting, and he was right. Nothing grabbed his attention. Chadors and even burqas in black, grey or slate blue seemed the only choice for women with the addition of ankle-length white dish-dashas for the men. Any hint of the exotic or even the fine didn’t exist. Nick suspected that the women would be out of luck.
There was no hurry. He was wasting time and showed only casual interest in the goods, so a reflection in a shadowed shop window riveted his attention after it had happened twice. The black shirt and badges were distinctive, as they were meant to be, and now he was watching it happen again. It was no coincidence. His blood pressure climbed high.
Nick’s first instinct was to evade, but then he dismissed it. He was on a shopping trip with two women and there was nothing sinister about that. He continued browsing as he returned to the vehicle.
Nick saw the women approaching from fifty metres away and almost gaped. They were bowed under several large plastic bags just like girls shopping in any city anywhere. He checked for the tail and saw he wasn’t that close before stepping around to open the rear doors. He kept his back to the women so they wouldn’t be tempted to wave and hissed that they were being watched when they reached him. They caught on right away. He climbed back behind the wheel while they lodged their parcels, acting restrained and demure like dominated women anywhere.
Nick kept his voice low and didn’t turn. “We’ll do exactly what we planned to do so it’s the markets next girls, but make it quick. I’ll be disinterested and stay in the car while you guys get what you want. I mentioned to Arak that we’ve got a week’s break coming up so he’d expect you to buy extra. If anyone asks Laleh, you’re Sarah’s daughter-in-law down for the holidays. Everybody happy?
It was Laleh who spoke.
“Don’t do anything that will get you into trouble Nick. You’ve done a lot for us already.”
“Bugger them Laleh! I said before that I’m not Iranian and I’m not Islamic. I’ll obey the laws of the country but they can sit on their archaic rules. It’s not how I think so it’s not going to be the way I act either. We’ll do what’s needed to protect you and Fred but stuff the rest of it.”
She sensed his underlying anger again and slid her hand over the seat back to squeeze his shoulder.
The markets were less than two miles away and they didn’t hang around. The baskets got filled quickly and Nick was driving back to Shahabad within thirty minutes. As he turned off to the town he relaxed. He might still be under observation but he couldn’t spot anyone following.
Meanwhile the religious copper returned to the mosque.
“Anything to report Qalat.”
Arak nodded thoughtfully.
The others were still fishing when Nick and the women got back to the dust of Shahabad, but then again even noon was some way off yet. The tension had eased but the trip bothered Nick. He was deep in thought.
Most of the shopping bags had clothes for Laleh, and she decided on a fashion show to distract him. Nick draped himself over the settee with a coffee while the girl paraded.
The styles and colours the women had found were certainly more vibrant than the garments he had bought earlier, but even so they were more subtle than stunning. There was nothing there to put the cat-walks in Paris or New York under any pressure, but even so Sarah nodded approval with each outfit.
Laleh had found jeans and two tops that fitted, and twirled in front of them in sateen blouse and skirt outfits, but what did get his attention were two sheer sleeping shirts amongst her purchases. One was in a deep purple, the other a diaphanous pink, and both had swirling patterns that extended to loose balloon sleeves. Some simple tailoring softened the shoulders and waist.
Nick tried blasé. He nodded with approval while seeming to ignore the faint outline of black panties and brassiere showing vaguely through the sheer material. He wasn’t hugely successful.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It took Laleh several minutes to change back into jeans and blouse. Sarah filled the mugs while she did, and Laleh put hers and Nick’s on a small wooden side table beside the divan when she got back. She collapsed against him, and tucked bare feet under her in that elegant, loose limbed way that is so typically female. The chat was warm and lazy while she drank.